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Welcome back to practical stoicism. I'm your host, Tanner Campbell, and if you'd like to get rid of ads, you can do so for just $6 a month by going to Stoicism.com, link in the show notes, and becoming a premium supporter. If that's not your thing, I get it, that's fine. Just tuning in, listening, and valuing this content is enough for me.

Today we're going to dive into Meditation 21 of Book 4, which reads as follows.

If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity?

But how does the earth contain the bodies of those who have

been buried from time so remote? For as here, the mutation of these bodies after a certain

continuance, whatever it may be, and their dissolution make room for other dead bodies. So the souls,

which are removed into the air after subsisting for some time are transmuted and diffused,

and assume a fiery nature by being received into the seminal intelligence of the universe,

and in this way make room for the fresh souls which come to dwell there.

And this is the answer which a man might give on the hypothesis of souls continuing to exist.

But we must not only think of the number of bodies which are thus buried,

but also of the number of animals which are daily eaten by us, and the other animals,

for what a number is consumed, and thus in a manner buried, in the bodies of those who feed on them.

And nevertheless, this earth receives them by, in the bodies of those who feed on them. And nevertheless, this

earth receives them by reason of the changes of these bodies into blood, and the transformations

into the aerial or the fiery element. I know what you're thinking? Tanner's an atheist. He's

going to hate this one. But you would be wrong. Those of us who don't believe in modern or ancient

concepts of God don't claim to know for sure that we know what happens after we die. Sure, we'll say

something like, and I have said this, you rot in the ground, that's it. But until we actually die,

...